Kentucky's evolving nepotism policy allows the school to hire relatives but with safeguards

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The University of Kentucky’s nepotism policy has evolved in recent years to reflect “the realities of today’s multi-professional, dual-career families” by making it possible for university employees to hire relatives.

As recently as 2013, UK barred administrative office employees, faculty and staff members from hiring relatives they would supervise. That included parents, children, spouses, siblings, in-laws, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, and half- or step-relatives of the same relationships.

If a marriage or transfer of an employee created a violation of the policy, one of the employees was required to resign or transfer by the end of the fiscal year or within six months.

The current policy, revised in September 2014, no longer prevents relatives from working for each other, instead it outlines a process designed to ensure the employment is in line with the university’s other hiring policies.

“We have evolved to reflect the modern workplace,” UK spokesman Jay Blanton said in an email. “For example, there are a lot more so-called ‘trailing spouses’ now, particularly at the faculty ranks. So, someone gets hired in a faculty position and he or she is married to someone else, who is in an academic discipline. The policy now allows that spouse to be considered for employment. The same is true at the staff level.”

A senior administrator — an employee who reports directly to the university president — can approve a hiring previously barred by the nepotism policy if: it is determined it is in “the best interest of the university;” the administrator has been informed of the selection process; all other hiring and employment qualification policies have been followed; and the administrator has approved a written management plan that ensures “employment decisions are made impartially and that neither employee is disadvantaged.”

UK “strongly urges” employees to avoid “conduct of an amorous or sexual nature” with a person they are in a position to evaluate or likely to be in the future, but employees are only required to disclose those relationships to the appropriate supervisor so arrangements can be made for “an objective evaluation of the student or employee.”

Board of trustees approval is needed for any relative of the president or an employee reporting directly to the president to be hired in that person’s administrative area, including UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart.

The current nepotism policy did not apply when Barnhart’s daughter, Kirby Willoughby, was hired as a graduate assistant in the athletic department in 2011. At the time, the athletic director was not required to seek a waiver from the board to hire a relative on a temporary basis of no more than two years. But UK President Eli Capilouto still sought and received board approval for the hiring, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Willoughby no longer works at UK, though there are at least a couple other examples of relatives working together within the athletic department.

UK gymnastics coach Tim Garrison hired his wife, Rachel Garrison, as an assistant coach in 2015, but she is directly supervised by Heather McAtee, an assistant athletic director and gymnastics liaison, according to a UK spokesman.

Men’s tennis assistant Matt Emery is the son of Dennis Emery, special assistant to the athletic director and former men’s tennis coach. But Matt Emery is not supervised by his father.

UK football coach Mark Stoops is no stranger to managing familial dynamics on a coaching staff — he worked for brother Mike Stoops at Arizona — but has not added any of the other members of his famous coaching family to his Kentucky staff.

Whether in athletics or the academic side of the university, UK’s updated nepotism policy is designed to better accommodate employee advancement, Blanton said.

“We want to create administrative opportunities for individuals, regardless of if their spouse also is employed here,” he said. “Being married to a UK employee should not bar promotion.”